Category: Material and Tool Information

  • Online Mosaic Design Tool

    Online Mosaic Design Tool

    To promote mosaic as a fine art, we encourage people to make their own mosaic designs and to choose non-gridded over gridded designs. Nevertheless, there are many situations that call for naturalistic images, and these are most easily made using a gridded design where each tile is treated as a tiny pixel.

  • Boo! Mosaic Patterns for Halloween

    Boo! Mosaic Patterns for Halloween

    Ivana created some patterns for Halloween mosaic designs that will be part of an ongoing series with new designs for each holiday. These patterns are for use with whole tiles in a grid with no grout gap and are designed for Morjo™ 10mm Vitreous Glass Mosaic Tile on a 12×12-inch mosaic backer. You can order…

  • Box Turtle Mosaic

    Box Turtle Mosaic

    This mosaic was made on a temporary surface of clear contact paper. I looked at the shell patterns of countless Eastern Box Turtles. The shell pattern of the turtle in my mosaic is all of them and none of them. I had an interesting problem with the backer for this mosaic. I found a way…

  • How to Make an Aluminum Mosaic Frame

    How to Make an Aluminum Mosaic Frame

    The aluminum mosaic frame featured in this article was made by artist Natalija Moss from flat bar stock instead of angle stock. Natalija wrote highly-detailed instructions for making a mosaic frame from aluminum angle-stock that should be consulted for step-by-step details and fastener specifications. I wanted to feature her new mosaic in an article because…

  • Vinegar Cleaning Grout Haze and Pit Stains

    Vinegar Cleaning Grout Haze and Pit Stains

    Glass mosaic tile, particularly vitreous glass tiles have sometimes have a few tiny pits in their surface, and these tiny pits can get stained with grout. Fortunately the pit staining can be prevented by applying a product called grout release before grouting, which is what installers use for large architectural tiling jobs. You can also…

  • How To Clean Up After Mixing Grout Or Mortar

    How To Clean Up After Mixing Grout Or Mortar

    I made a video showing how to clean up the spreading tools and bucket after mixing up grout or thinset mortar. My method only requires a cup or two of water from a spray bottle and some downcycled plastic grocery bags.

  • How to Mount a Gapless Mosaic in Thinset Mortar

    How to Mount a Gapless Mosaic in Thinset Mortar

    I just made a video that shows how to mount a mosaic without a grout gap in a bed of thinset mortar. The project task used for the video was mounting the QR Code Mosaic to an outdoor sign backer that made from mortar and hardware cloth. The Video Here’s the video: video: How To…

  • QR-Code Mosaic Sign

    QR-Code Mosaic Sign

    I needed to make a QR-code sign for my yard to tell my neighbors about the native pollinator meadow seedlings I have for them this year. I’ve converted my lawn into a native pollinator meadow, with all sorts of amazing results in terms of butterflies and hummingbirds and native ecology, and I am trying to…

  • Mounting and Grouting Moses Mosaic

    Mounting and Grouting Moses Mosaic

    I have mounted my mosaic Moses Dreaming on Sinai on an irregularly-shaped backer and grouted the mosaic. I have made videos of the mounting and grouting processes.

  • Backer for Irregularly-Shaped Mosaic

    Backer for Irregularly-Shaped Mosaic

    I have made another mosaic of Moses dreaming on Mount Sinai, and this version also has an irregular shape. I like making sacred relics and visual artwork that “goes past the frame.” I wanted this mosaic to be on a stone tablet like the original decalogue.

  • Mr. Pinchapotamus 2.0 Improved Tile Cutting Fixture

    Mr. Pinchapotamus 2.0 Improved Tile Cutting Fixture

    Yes, your wildest dreams have come true. Mr. Pinchapotamus, your favorite tile cutting fixture has been redesigned to make it even more efficient. After tens of thousands of hours of research at MIT, CERN, and Cal Tech, scientists have finally found a way to make Mr. Pinchapotamus easier to load with a tile. This breakthrough…

  • How To Mosaic Videos with Narration

    How To Mosaic Videos with Narration

    MAS employee Stone Irvin is an electronica recording artist, and she has agreed to read the captions for our mosaic videos and to compose the theme music. We have published two of these narrated videos, and I am eager for your feedback. Quick Color Studies The following video shows how to make a quick color…